tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post6067799599357941246..comments2019-02-22T07:37:43.846-05:00Comments on Fiction University: When Less is More: Taking Away Elements to Fix a Problem SceneJanice Hardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02356672149097741248noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-86602948405878595822012-07-23T12:47:16.988-04:002012-07-23T12:47:16.988-04:00Wow, there is a lot of good advice here. I will de...Wow, there is a lot of good advice here. I will definitely try to remember it all so I can try the things out. Thanks Janice and everyone who commented.Maryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12039497575813377818noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-58518929507738074122012-07-17T08:02:06.863-04:002012-07-17T08:02:06.863-04:00Jo, most welcome. Adding is my first reaction, too...Jo, most welcome. Adding is my first reaction, too, but I&#39;ve noticed plenty of times when I get sick of it and just get rid of the stuff that&#39;s giving me a problem, hehe. Works more often than not.<br /><br />Carradee, great questions, even if the scene IS working. Very useful indeed. Thanks!<br /><br />Natalie, most welcome. Sometimes cutting the whole scene is best, but it&#39;s nice to have options.<br /><br />Terry, &quot;why&quot; is my editor&#39;s favorite question too, and I learned that &quot;because I said so&quot; doesn&#39;t work either :)<br /><br />Jo E, LOL I know that feeling. <br /><br />Amanda, that&#39;s often the way to fix it, sometimes there&#39;s something there we really want to keep. Just one more tool for the toolbox. <br /><br />Lexa, outlines stop a lot of problems before they happen. I&#39;ve heard somewhere throwing in a man with a gun works too (one of those classic author guys said it but I forget who right now)<br /><br />Linda, I think I get what you mean. It&#39;s all good story stuff, but it winds up being too much and &quot;junky&quot; and doesn&#39;t serve the story. I&#39;ve found things get junky like that when I have too many goals in one scene. Even if the main goal is to do X, but I try to slip in other concerns to layer it up and &quot;add more story&quot; as they say. (just killed a lot of a chapter for that reason yesterday). Looking at my narrative focus helps here. What am I trying to do/show/say. Then add in only the things that help/complicate/add tension to that.Janice Hardyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02356672149097741248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-54865243269246414302012-07-17T06:26:29.050-04:002012-07-17T06:26:29.050-04:00I&#39;ve been giving thought to this over the last...I&#39;ve been giving thought to this over the last few days. I tend to overcomplicate my longer fiction, possibly as a result of running too short. Everyone always said things like &quot;Just add more story!&quot; or &quot;Just add more description.&quot; But I tend to add a lot of junk. Doesn&#39;t look like junk, and isn&#39;t anything that is typical of what writers overwrite (meaning reading craft books is unhelpful). So in my revision, I&#39;m identifying three important things in the scene and anything else needs to be evaluated.Linda Adamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07203020058437093901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-7684447474957759172012-07-17T01:21:45.253-04:002012-07-17T01:21:45.253-04:00I must admit I went through a phase where I added ...I must admit I went through a phase where I added a fight scene (physical or verbal) if my story started to drag. But I outline now, so the problem doesn&#39;t come up.<br />Thanks for the great post!Lexa Cainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07735576044552810103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-66897230705948635182012-07-16T14:15:41.956-04:002012-07-16T14:15:41.956-04:00I usually just cut a whole scene it it&#39;s not w...I usually just cut a whole scene it it&#39;s not working. Next time I will try your tips!Amanda Hopperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12973974017154520574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-9889584162373498482012-07-16T10:36:31.301-04:002012-07-16T10:36:31.301-04:00My poor protagonist... I take so many things away ...My poor protagonist... I take so many things away from him as it is. I&#39;m not sure he&#39;d survive me taking anything more away from him.<br /><br />-- Jo EberhardtAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-91823615430311907992012-07-16T10:22:23.433-04:002012-07-16T10:22:23.433-04:00My &#39;go-to&#39; question is &quot;WHY?&quot; On...My &#39;go-to&#39; question is &quot;WHY?&quot; Once I know why a character is doing something, or why the scene is necessary, I can usually whittle down the excess. Too many times, I find the answer is, &quot;because this is such brilliant prose/dialogue&quot; which definitely means it needs to go.<br /><br />Terry <br /><a href="http://terryodell.com/terrysplace" rel="nofollow">Terry&#39;s Place</a>Terry Odellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11610682530545306687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-13419291815471593162012-07-16T07:41:29.188-04:002012-07-16T07:41:29.188-04:00I&#39;ve cut whole scenes before that weren&#39;t ...I&#39;ve cut whole scenes before that weren&#39;t really necessary but not tried this for a scene not working. I&#39;ll have to try it when I get stuck next time. Thanks for the suggestions.Natalie Aguirrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03756087804171246660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-37639019631387783242012-07-16T07:30:29.046-04:002012-07-16T07:30:29.046-04:00Oh, yeah. I do this often. It&#39;s fairly normal ...Oh, yeah. I do this often. It&#39;s fairly normal for me to know a scene&#39;s wrong and to be stuck with it until I approach it from the perspective:<br /><br />• Who or what seems to be sending the scene off-course?<br />• Who and what <em>has</em> to be there?<br />• Who and what is optional?<br />• Who and what is utterly unnecessary?<br /><br />Notice the &quot;seems&quot; in that first question. It&#39;s not unusual answers to both the first and last questions be enough to fix a scene, though I can think of one right now that I&#39;ll be revising soon, wherein I&#39;ll probably need to dispose of some optional components, too, just to make the scene manageable.<br /><br />I ask the &quot;who <em>and</em> what&quot; questions because sometimes, I&#39;ll run into a situation wherein one of the &quot;needs&quot; is &quot;a villain&quot;, while the specific villainous character is what&#39;s screwing up a scene. So then I have to ask &quot;Who else could be in this scene instead?&quot;<br /><br />All that to say, this is quite a handy concept! Not necessarily intuitive, but useful. :)Carradeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05431561739001270522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-8387924500566175472012-07-16T06:47:35.725-04:002012-07-16T06:47:35.725-04:00What an interesting concept. I usually add more el...What an interesting concept. I usually add more elements when a scene is stalled. It honestly never occurred to me that removing thigns could work as a catalyst. Thank you, Janice.Jo Antareauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18027989147411624378noreply@blogger.com